Friday, September 23, 2016

The Other Danger: Gary Johnson (UPDATED)



Well, there's this:
A recent NBC News/Quinnipiac poll reveals that more than a quarter of young voters—many who had supported the presidential bid of Sen. Bernie Sanders—plan to cast their presidential ballots for Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson.
Gary Johnson?  Gary "What's Aleppo?" Johnson?  Yeah, the legalizing pot guy.  Well, let's see what other "millennial- friendly" positions does the ultra- right Johnson take?

1. He opposes Federal guarantees for student loans.

2. He opposes virtually all forms of gun control.

3. He opposes the minimum wage.

4. He opposes equal pay laws.

5. He opposes collective bargaining for public employees.

6. He proposes cuts to Social Security and "devolving" Medicare and Medicaid to the states.

7. He's a Koch- head.

There's more at Raw Story, if you need further convincing.

Furthermore, as you might expect from a Koch- head, the guy's a climate change crackpot:
Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate for president, takes what he calls the "long-term view" of climate change. "In billions of years," he said in 2011, "the sun is going to actually grow and encompass the Earth, right? So global warming is in our future." 
The former New Mexico governor did acknowledge that humans are making the world warmer in the near term, too—but he doesn't think the government should do much about it. In the same speech, he denounced "cap-and-trade taxation," said we "should be building new coal-fired plants," and argued that the "trillions" of dollars it would cost to combat climate change would be better spent on other priorities.  (our emphasis)
Catherine Rampell cites the Quinnipiac poll and thinks the "crush" some millennials have on Johnson will fade:
[A] tighter race — one, ironically, made tighter largely because of millennial defections from the Clinton camp — changes the calculus. It’s riskier to “throw away” your vote, either by supporting someone who has no chance of winning or by abstaining from the polls altogether.  
See, millennials may not adore Clinton, but they really, really hate Trump. Six in 10 young voters view him “strongly” unfavorably, and the same share describe him as “racist.” Don’t be surprised if their third-party crushes start to fade as the prospect of President Trump begins to feel all too terrifyingly real.
We wish we could be so sanguine.  The shiny object that is Gary Johnson can turn into the presidency of neo- fascist dimwit Donald "Rump" Trump in a little over a month.  Think about that.  Think about what Sen. Bernie Sanders said on September 16:
"This is not the time for a protest vote, in terms of a presidential campaign," Sanders said. "I ran as a third-party candidate. I'm the longest-serving independent in the history of the United States Congress. I know more about third-party politics than anyone else in the Congress, okay? And if people want to run as third-party candidates, God bless them! Run for Congress. Run for governor. Run for state legislature. When we're talking about president of the United States, in my own personal view, this is not time for a protest vote. This is time to elect Hillary Clinton and then work after the election to mobilize millions of people to make sure she can be the most progressive president she can be."  (our emphasis)
On November 8, the only choice is between Hillary Clinton and Rump.  If you think and vote otherwise, it means you're willing to risk an apocalyptic Rump presidency.  Period.

UPDATE:  If you think this guy is playing with a full deck, watch this clip ("Yippee!"):



UPDATE II:  Or how about this:

UPDATE III:  Or as Charles Pierce puts it, "Attention Gary Johnson hipsters: he's nuts." Pass it on.

(Photo:  He just got the dutchie passed from the right hand side.)